And the Kickstarter has almost reached its goal! We're 97% funded in just two weeks! Another huge thanks to everyone who has contributed! I anticipate I'll be thanking you guys a lot as the month goes on.

I've got a big update in the works: Stretch goals! New tiers! New rewards for many of the existing tiers! And more! Keep an eye out...

EDIT: I was on the road when we hit the goal, so my big update isn't quite ready, but WE DID IT! We've reached the goal! Another huge thanks to everyone who has backed the Kickstarter. These books will be awesome, we promise. And tomorrow I'll show you the new rewards and stretch goals...

Congratulations to you both, Wolfy and Scorp! I am so glad to see so much support for your creative dreams being fulfilled. May it be the start of a fiction series and universe that will bring new life and fun to the fantasy genre and even to the arts themselves, in a spectacle that would make the muses weep tears of joy.

Two new reward levels have been added to the Kickstarter! The first is an alternate Level 3 ($24) called Hoplite which includes the novel ONLY, instead of the comic. Also, backers at Level 4: Legionnaire ($30) will now be able to choose between a signed comic OR novel.

The second new tier we've added is Level 6.5: Praetorian, which includes a custom LEGO minifig based on a Wulfgard character! All higher levels will include this reward as well.

There will be several minifigs to choose from, including Tom Drake and Whisper (seen below), an Inquisitor, a Venator, and more (I'll post them in later updates)!

And now that we've reached our goal, we're looking ahead to stretch goals! If we get enough extra funding, here's what we're planning to do with it:

If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions, feel free to voice them! Especially ideas regarding these and/or additional stretch goals.

Huzzah, the stretch goals are revealed! I'm almost ashamed of how much I was obsessing over what these would end up being...almost.

I LOVE illustrated guides and prologues, and those playing cards also look promising! I'll definitely give my friends a few more friendly nudges to support this endeavor while it's going strong.

I've already expressed my appreciation for Tom's minifig design, but I must compliment the ingenuity of Whisper's decals. The way the ears emerge from the hairpiece is brilliant, and also means we won't have to rely as much on purchasing parts from the pricey Hobbit lego sets to make elven minifigs (not necessarily saying that's a bad thing). Well done!

With the $4,600 milestone passed, we've added the Guidebook as a reward for all backers Level 6 or above! And now we're just $100 away from adding the playing card deck too!

New $6,000+ Stretch Goals
Upon further consideration, we have decided to push the Wulfgard Illustrated Guide stretch goal to $7,000. But we've also added a new $6,000 stretch goal: Wulfgard Music Album! If we hit $6,000, then Ryan will create a full album of music like you heard in the Kickstarter video, containing 8-12 tracks inspired by Wulfgard characters, factions, etc. - and all backers at level 5 or higher will get a digital copy of the album.

Add-On Rewards
If you are interested in any of our new reward items, but you aren't sure if you want to increase to a higher pledge level, you can now add individual items to your pledge as add-ons. As long as you are a Level 4 ($30) backer or higher, just add $12 to your pledge for the Guidebook, or $24 for the Custom Minifig, without changing your chosen reward level. We'll ask you which add-ons you meant to purchase once the Kickstarter project is over. The playing card deck will also be available as an add-on, if we reach that stretch goal. If you have any questions about how the add-ons work, don't hesitate to ask.

Wallpaper Images
And finally, here are some wallpaper-sized images of artwork from the Wulfgard Kickstarter video for you to enjoy! All are based on scenes from the novel, Wulfgard: Knightfall...

Spoiler

Frost Raven Warrior

Kye on the balcony

Magnhild and Moonlight

Sir Scaevius, Left Hand of the Emperor

Captain Victor Magnus and his Longbowmen

The White Werewolf

Sir Tom Drake - Knightfall cover art

There are only about 3 weeks left in the Kickstarter now! Keep an eye out for our next update soon!

I thought I would dedicate this update to some additional details about what makes the printed version of the Into the North, Volume 1 comic special, as compared to the online webcomic version:

The printed version of the comic will include:

An exclusive Prologue, providing a look into the Wanderer's past and Lord Plutarch's motivations

Additional pages in some of the main chapters as well

Character cameos by high level Kickstarter backers

Improved artwork on many pages, especially in chapter 3

Some of these things may eventually make their way to the webcomic as well, but most (especially the prologue) will be exclusive to the printed comic.

At any rate, we're hoping to get a little more funding in the remaining 3 days of the Kickstarter! Help us make sure that Ryan gets to compose at least 3 or 4 new music tracks for our digital Wulfgard music album!

WE DID IT! Yet another huge thanks to all our backers and supporters! We ended with $5,767 - 144% of our original funding goal!

If you backed the Kickstarter at any level with physical rewards, keep an eye out for a message from us soon. Also, don't forget to vote in the short stories poll in the backer-only forum! If you don't have access to that board, just contact me via Kickstarter with your forum account name, and I'll upgrade your account. We plan to close the poll in a week or so, so we can get to work on the stories!

We'll keep all our backers updated on our progress as we work toward getting the books (and other rewards) published. Thanks again for helping us make them a reality!

I've been posting updates about the Kickstarter on the KS page itself and in the backer-only board here on the forum, but I figure it's about time to post one in here again...

Progress is going well! But obviously, it hasn't been happening as fast as we hoped when we made August 2015 the estimated delivery date on the Kickstarter page. Sorry we missed that, but we thought it might happen, since we want to ensure all of the final products are as perfect as they can be. We are now shooting for October as the ship date, and of course we'll continue to keep the backers updated as we get closer.

As for the good news, the bookmarks and playing cards are here!

They are now in our hands. As are the Lego minifigs, although I am planning to send a message to all minifig recipients asking if they want their 'figs in yellow or flesh-tone, which I forgot to include in the initial survey. The comic, novel, and guidebook are all in their final stages, and hopefully we'll have photos of those to show soon too.

And now, I'm back to putting the finishing touches on the exclusive prologue chapter for the comic book. I think the prologue turned out very nicely, and I hope you all get to enjoy it soon!

Those look splendid! Definitely worth every copper, and the wait, to boot! I noticed that certain cards only showed titles, partial names, or partial images. I'm guessing the intent there was to avoid spoilers and/or keep us guessing. I'm looking forward to their arrival!

I suppose it's too late to remark that certain cards have colored backgrounds, instead of plain ones like most of the others. I suppose we'll just treat those as special editions or cards that just needed to be accentuated. Guntram's card (9 of Clubs) also caught my eye, since he's colored but still set in a sketch, almost as if the card is part of an unfinished storyboard or something. I thought that was a nice touch.

A few cards featured characters that I don't remember seeing on the wiki or any of your previous works. Are those backer submissions, or just characters we haven't met yet?

I suppose it's too late to remark that certain cards have colored backgrounds, instead of plain ones like most of the others. I suppose we'll just treat those as special editions or cards that just needed to be accentuated.

Sorry if you find the discrepancy bothersome. It just seemed easier to leave the background on certain images, and I thought it looked pretty cool. There are 4 cards with a full background, and some with just a few small background elements. And yes, Guntram's card comes from one of the chapter header sketches in the novel, so I left some of his Frost Ravens behind him as uncolored sketches. I rather like the effect.

A few cards featured characters that I don't remember seeing on the wiki or any of your previous works. Are those backer submissions, or just characters we haven't met yet?

They're just characters you haven't met yet. There are 11 cards featuring characters who do not appear in the book, comic, or short stories as they currently stand - and 2 more cards of characters who are only mentioned in the novel, but don't actually appear. But all of these characters will pop up later, and you may have already met a few in forum role-playing games, etc. And since a couple of the short stories for the eBook are not yet written, they may pop in those. We'll see...

As for the highest-level backers, they aren't on any cards, but all of you guys will appear in at least 2 frames of the final comic!